Chapter Ninety-Seven: And Into the Flames

Chapter Ninety-Seven: And Into the Flames

Noelle was trapped. Not just by the strange magic holding her in place, making her feel like ants were crawling around angrily beneath her skin, but by the memories that assaulted her. The pain in her chest was sharp where the woman had hit her, made worse by the position she was stuck in. Doubled over against the wall, clutching the remains of the axe Zaren had gifted her, she hadn’t even managed to find the wind that had been knocked from her before the wave of magic locked her every muscle in place.

No matter how hard she struggled and pushed, not a single one of her limbs would react. Nothing moved. It dragged her back to the short few years she’d spent wearing one of those awful iron collars, before they realized she no longer had the will to resist them. She was back in the dark. Unable to resist the things they did to her. When they’d beaten her. When they’d taken her wings. Panic flooded every part of her, filling the corners of her mind with fog so thick she couldn’t find her way back. Drowning her thoughts in echoes of screams so loud she couldn’t remember what silence even sounded like. She couldn’t even curl up into a ball to protect herself. Couldn’t cry or scream or plead for mercy. She could do nothing but sit there and wait for whatever came next.

Noelle.

The voice cut through the darkness, brushing against her like a caress. A ghost of a touch on her cheek, like someone had so softly pressed their hand to the side of her head. Then there was another on her other cheek, cupping her face. Quieting the screams. Dispelling the fog. One drifted down to wrap around her hand, squeezing reassuringly.

Noelle, the voice said again, I need your help. Zaren needs your help.

The voice was warm and comforting. It wasn’t that far from how she’d always imagined her mother’s voice must have sounded. And as her words chased away the last of Noelle’s panic, leaving her with a calm she didn’t realize existed, the hallway came into view. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Serena, stuck in a similar position to her own.

But it was the figures right in front of her that demanded her immediate attention. The woman from before stood with her arms crossed, her posture radiating tension, and a strange magic symbol still glowing on her breast. The tall blond man stood in front of Zaren, who was missing a large patch of his shirt.

“I don’t understand why this isn’t working!” the blond man said through clenched teeth as he carved another line in Zaren’s chest. There must have been half a dozen of varying depths leaving blood trailing down his front. Its color was off, as if there was something dark mixed in with the normally crimson liquid. “It’s as if his soul is wrapped in protections unlike anything I’ve seen!”

The woman scoffed and stalked forward, snatching the dagger from the man. Noelle was powerless to do anything but watch as she jammed it into Zaren’s chest and twisted. The skin around his eyes tightened, but that was all the reaction he was allowed thanks to this strange magic.

Noelle, we’re very quickly running out of time!

When Noelle tore her gaze away from the scene in front of her, she realized the Jailer’s Blade was lying just a few inches from the hand she’d braced against the floor when she’d tried to regain her balance. The latch was undone with the blade sticking a few inches out of the scabbard, and crimson smoke trailed from the gem in the hilt. It was stretched across the ground and wrapped around her wrist, slowly trailing up her arm. Its touch felt just like the calming caress that had brought her out of her panic.

Was the sword talking to her? She knew that Zaren would often pause, as if he was conversing with the blade, and had even mentioned the being inside once or twice, but even knowing that there was nothing she could do. Ash, she thought the name was, might have needed something from her, but trapped by this magic—

I can break the magic’s hold on you, but there will be a cost. Potentially a steep one, the voice said.

If it meant helping Zaren, there wasn’t much Noelle wasn’t willing to do. She looked back to the woman just as she yanked the blade free from Zaren’s chest with a curse. “What the fuck is he doing with Zaverrian magic?”

We don’t have much time. I can lend you my power, but it’s going to hurt. The voice suddenly sounded rushed. Panicked. But I need you to understand. You aren’t like Zaren. You have too much of my plane in your blood. Zaren is the perfect host; just enough of my plane to wield my magic but enough of this one to keep it from consuming him. You’ll be able to wield more of my power than he could ever hope to, but it will burn through you like dragonfire.

That didn’t matter. If she did nothing, Zaren would die. She would likely die. And if they decided not to kill her, then...

Well, odds were she’d rather be dead.

No, she’d do this. Whatever it was the voice needed from her. She’d endured pain before, but before she’d endured it because she had no other choice. Now she’d endure it again, this time for the people she’d come to care about. For the man who’d managed to earn her trust. Who’d helped her feel things again and made her unafraid to let her emotions in. For every time Serena or Tiana or Rhallani or any of the others had made her feel loved. For every time one of them had held her tight, completely unaware how constantly she felt on the verge of breaking and falling back into the darkness she'd clawed her way out of.

For her family, there wasn't anything she wouldn't do.

“Zaverrian?” the blond man was saying. “I was under the impression the plane that country resided in wasn’t around any longer.”

Ash must have sensed her resolve. Alright. Prepare yourself. This won’t be pleasant.

The woman shook her head, thrusting the knife back into the man’s hands. “It’s not, but a few cockroaches always manage to slip through the cracks. Or did you think the blade grew its own legs and walked itself to this realm. Which you’d know if you successfully tracked down all the artifacts, but you fucked that up too, didn’t you?”

“I told you, the entire damn book shop got bought out from under me!” the man spat.

The tendril crept higher up Noelle’s arm. I’ll break you free. Grab the blade, then hold on for dear life. The second you touch it, you’ll be on a timer, understand?

Noelle wasn’t entirely sure why she was asking questions. It wasn’t like she could answer them in her current state. But she was ready. Prepared. She doubted there were many who were so well equipped to handle pain like her. In that way, Zaren’s enemies had created the tool that would bring about their destruction.

“Remember where my master found you, Arthal. He pulled you out of that hole solely because he believed you would be capable of delivering the blade and its occupant to him. You owe him for every decade you’ve lived since then, and trust me when I say he will collect.”

The man got in her face as the tendril moved further, splitting and wrapping around Noelle’s torso, heading towards each of her limbs. “I know the debt I owe, and I’ve already half paid it off. We’ve got the blade, finally, as I promised. Clearly I’ve made a miscalculation somewhere, but it won’t take me long to figure out where I went—” he cut off suddenly, the his head whipped towards the sword.

He cursed, lunging for the blade, but he was too late. All at once, the tendrils tightened around Noelle. Something around her snapped, and suddenly she was free. Her hand jerked towards the blade, closing those last few inches between them. Someone shouted as her fingers closed around the hilt.

Noelle’s world exploded into color as lightning raced through her veins. It reminded her of the soft warmth of Serena’s healing, only magnified a thousandfold. It started where her flesh touched the blade, but it spread out through the rest of her in the blink of an eye. Filling her limbs with raw power. Not just her arms and her legs, but her wings, too. She felt the energy from the overly sensitive bases to the tips she hadn’t felt since they’d been cut away from her body.

The hallway seemed to elongate. Every detail sharpening until she could count the individual stubble on Arthal’s jaw as he lunged towards her, his shadows surging from his body. Noelle had always felt light—a consequence of her race—but now it felt like her physical form had faded away entirely. For a brief moment she felt pain, but even that faded away. She was pure energy. Raw power. She didn’t swing the blade at Arthal, she imagined herself on the other side of him and then she was in a flash of crimson.

We need to stop the woman. Aim for the crest on her chest, Ash commanded.

Noelle lifted the blade, feeling utterly weightless, unsure where her body ended and the sword began. And as she looked into the crimson and violet eyes of the strange woman who’d terrified her a moment ago and found fear there, she couldn’t help but feel a thrill of excitement.

Whatever the consequence, she was going to enjoy this.

# # #

By the time Arthal’s severed limb found the ground again, Noelle had shattered the blades Lilith had drawn to protect herself. Whatever magic had shattered all the blades I’d used to defend myself wilted under the intensity of Noelle’s assault, backed by Ash’s magic.

And Noelle?

Noelle was terrifyingly magnificent. Ash’s magic had wrapped every inch of her below the neck in shadows that seemed to flicker between crimson darkness and something more substantial. Her hair was twice as long and flared out like she was underwater, the vivid scarlet melding with the shadows until the ends were as black as my own shadows. And her wings were no longer the small, half-formed limbs. Ash’s shadows had completely enveloped them, leaving Noelle with two wings made from her inky-crimson magic, each one as long as she was tall. She swung around the massive blade only slightly shorter than her that glowed with a darkness that seemed to devour the light around it like it was weightless.

Lilith darted backwards, something off about how she moved through the air. It was as if her body was moving at a slightly different speed than the world around her. But to a supercharged Noelle, it still wasn’t fast enough. Lilith threw out wave after wave of strange magic, but Noelle and Ash cut through each one.

Meanwhile, Arthal was limping towards that crimson door, clutching his stump. He shot one last look at me over his shoulder, his eyes full of malice and the promise of retribution, before he yanked the door open and stumbled through it. Only it didn’t close behind him. I remained frozen, completely helpless as a blue-gray snout nosed the door open fully.

My stomach plummeted as a six-legged Ashai stalked through the door, its short snout twitching as it scented the air. It wasn’t quite as large as the ones Serena and I had killed in the forest, but the three that followed behind it erased any advantage that might have given me. Not that I had any to begin with, considering I was currently doing my best impression of the appropriately destitute statue of myself I’d seen exactly once since my return.

My pounding heart served to make even more blood pour from the deep wounds that damned knife had left on my chest. Getting carved up by the magic soul knife was hardly the worst pain I’d ever endured—once you’d been impaled by a Valax queen small cuts like this seemed rather insignificant in comparison—but it had hurt like hell. Thanks to a certain blade constantly trying to rip my soul out of my chest, I could not only endure it, I could resist whatever the strange effect the blade was supposed to have.

But, unfortunately, cuts were still cuts. And the second the scent of the blood on my chest hit the first Ashai’s nostrils, its head whipped towards me. The other three took one look at Noelle and launched themselves at her for reasons I didn’t fully understand.

Noelle spun like she knew they were coming without so much as glancing their way. Her wing slammed into the first one with enough force to send it careening into the wall. The blade found the second, and from the point of the strike burst a crimson spectral beast that looked not unlike the snout of one of the Eldritch Beasts she was fighting.

The third tried to lunge at her from the side, but spectral ravens twice the size of the ones Noelle normally conjured rushed it, ripping at its face and driving it back. With a feral roar, Noelle surged away from the outstretched claws. She spun, knocking Lilith’s blades away with one wing then sweeping her legs with the other. Lilith managed to stay upright, but she was off-balance enough that Noelle’s next strike rang true.

Without her feet even touching the ground, one flex of her wings sent her darting forward in a crimson and black blur. Lilith shifted, once again moving in a way that didn’t quite match up with the world around her, but the tip of the Jailer’s Blade managed to just barely scrape the magic sigil still glowing on Lilith’s chest.

Like the strings holding me back had been cut, I fell to one knee. The first thing I did was boost Noelle with an [Empower]. Immediately after, I applied a [Shadow Stitching] to stop the bleeding on my chest. Nearly simultaneously, I pulled a kite shield out of my storage. Not a moment too soon, as the Ashai slammed into the shield, its four front claws carving deep grooves in the metal.

I didn’t have time to deal with it, so I shifted just enough to let the Ashai tumble past me before hurling myself at where Lilith and Noelle still fought. Thanks to [Predator’s Pursuit] I knew for a fact that Lilith felt fear bordering on terror every time the Jailer’s Blade came close to her. I also knew that there wasn’t a single drop of fear in Noelle. In fact, past the blaring of [Danger Sense] warning me that every second Noelle wielded Ash’s magic brought her closer to death, I could feel her elation through our bond.

But as I tossed the first Ashai behind me, the massive snout of a Rathum emerged from the crimson door. Then its shoulders hit the frame and it stopped, too wide to even fit through. It struggled with a snarl, trying to force its way through the frame. Then its glowing crimson eyes fixed on me. It let out a sound somewhere between a bark and a chirp. Immediately the three Ashai circling turned and charged at me, and I knew without looking that the one I’d dodged wouldn’t be far behind.

While the Rathum angrily tried to shove itself through the door, the four Ashai converged on me. I summoned two short blades and half a dozen shadows to defend me, but the hallway wasn’t big enough for me to slip past the Ashai, and Noelle’s strength was flagging. Already her movements were becoming sluggish, and my [Danger Sense] told me it wouldn’t be long before her body gave out.

The three Ashai rushed me from the front and it was all I could do to keep them back with blade and shadow, but the fourth never made it to me. Not before a rush of golden light announced Serena’s arrival at my back. It was no spear, but there was enough left of the haft of Noelle’s axe for her to knock the Ashai back. It was trivial to replace the haft with one of the backup spears I kept in my storage.

She rolled her shoulders and brandished her blade. “Don’t remind me. These are beasts, so I’ll lead, ‘kay?”

I nodded once and she was off. She fell in beside Nora and the two fought together like they’d been doing it all their lives. Even more surprising, I fit into their battle dynamic like a piece they’d been missing all along.

Nora was an adept bruiser and Allie was damage incarnate, but neither of them could demand the attention of several beasts at once like me and my shadows. Nora’s hammer broke bones and Allie’s blade severed arteries while I drew aggro. The hallway was illuminated by constant flashes as Therese’s crystalline magic cut through the fray with a precision that would give Tiana a run for her money.

By the time the last Eldritch Beast fell I was almost out of mana, Essence, health, and shadows. I swayed on my feet, desperately ready for a nap, but the absence of the Rathum demanded my attention. “How many slipped through the hole?” I asked, panting.

“Too many,” Therese said with a grimace.

I nodded, then dragged myself out of the hole in the wall. We were relatively near the entrance where we’d all decided to rendezvous, and I was somewhat relieved by the piles of dead Beasts. There was a crimson flash as red and gold flames immolated another, drawing my eye to a half-corporeal Jack who looked at me with flaming eyes.

“You are in so much trouble. How dare you not send me an invite!” she said, pointing one flaming finger at me.

“Things happened a little—mmph!”

My words were silenced by Tiana’s lips as she threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and practically shoving her tongue down my throat. I only had a moment to be confused before I realized she was grinding her pussy on my thigh while her fingers made a mess of my hair.

I managed to pull back enough to look at her, and the glazed look in her eyes was all I needed to see. “[All In]?” I asked.

“A few times,” she said breathlessly before diving back to lock lips with me. I snaked a hand between us and plunged my fingers into her dripping snatch. She came the moment I curled them towards myself, pressing into her most sensitive spot. She released my mouth with a whimper and tucked her face into the crook between my neck and shoulder while she rode my hand.

“Well,” Allie said, “that’s one way to cap off a battle.”

I shot her a glare. There was no judgment in her gaze. It was mostly amusement, though it was tempered by a longing I couldn’t afford to analyze right now. “She’s got a—” I started.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, waving a hand, “detriment class and all. They told me.”

I arched a brow. I asked them to bring her into the fold, but it occurred to me then that I should probably double check exactly how they interpreted my request. But that was yet another thing to worry about later. I turned my attention back towards Jack while I drove Tiana towards another orgasm.

“The Rathum?”

She huffed. “Slipped into the city along with maybe a dozen of the other fuckers. I’ve got Reese and Zoey tracking it, and we’ve already rang the alarm to tell civilians to stay indoors. Where the fuck were they hiding all these Beasts?”

“Not here.” I briefly explained the facility I’d seen through the gate. If what I’d seen was right, even this small horde wasn’t even a fraction of what our enemy had at their disposal. “Let’s get moving, we need to track down all these—”

“Not a chance,” Allie interjected. “You said it yourself, you’re tapped.”

I frowned. “I’m fine. As long as these beasts are out and about, the city’s in danger—”

Allie stepped closer, her hands on her hips. “And you’ve already made sure the incursion can’t get any worse than it already is. Now you need to go home and rest while your household,” she jabbed her thumb into her own chest, “proves its worth.”

I shook my head. “Between the Rathum and the other Beasts—”

“What’s your spread?”

“What?”

“Health, mana, Essence. Lay it on me.”

I knew when arguing with Eliya was a moot point, so I sighed and checked my stats, wincing as I saw the values that corroborated the story my aching body was already telling.

[Health: 49/220]

[Mana: 7/140]

[Soul Essence: 11/230]

“That’s what I thought,” Allie said before I could so much as read the values aloud. My expression must have been telling. She took another step closer. “You’re going to go back to the manor and have Cynthia raise a bounty for any and all Eldritch Beasts, funded by House Nocht itself. That’ll get the local adventurers all moving in a hurry and garner plenty of reputation to get the ball rolling on your house adventurers plan. Then, because I know you and I’m starting to get to know Serena, you’ll send the busty blond out to take care of the injured while Jack and I track down the Rathum and put it down. And after that I imagine you’ll keep the neighborhood awake with the sounds of Tiana’s screams.” Then she smiled sweetly. “Or am I wrong?”

The silence hung heavy in the air for a moment. Allie’s brow was raised, waiting for me to challenge her. Jack stood just behind her, very clearly trying not to laugh. Our staring contest was abruptly broken by Tiana’s next climax, then I sighed.

Once again, I was faced with irrefutable proof that Allie and Eliya were one and the same. Eliya had had the same irritating habit of jumping right to the plan she knew I was going to think up, and in my current state I couldn’t argue a single part of her plan. “I’ll have Valith run interference,” I said finally, acknowledging defeat.

Allie made a triumphant sound, then rose up on her tip toes to press a kiss to my cheek. Then, before either of us could react, she spun on the ball of her foot and pranced away. “Come on girls, we’ve got a Rathum to hunt.”

Jack elbowed me. “I like her a lot, Z. You’d better not fuck things up.”

I shot her a droll look. “I’m afraid that particular ship has long since sailed. Don’t you have a Rathum to immolate?”

The glow in her eyes grew a mite more intense. “I love it when you talk dirty to me,” she said with a wink. Then she turned and ran after the others. “Hey, idiots! I’m the one who can read Reese’s signs!”

I stared after her until Tiana, still clutching me, giggled. “Your face. You are so fucked,” she said dreamily.

“Not yet I’m not,” I mumbled. “Can you walk?”

She whimpered. “Can you spare a tendril?”

“I can in a few minutes.”

“Fine, but only because I know how badly you need to check on Noelle and Karina,” she said with a huff.

“Hey,” I turned her chin up towards me. “You know I would have torn this city apart to find you, right? You’re just as important to me as any of the others.”

Her lips curled upward and her already flushed face turned a half shade darker. “Zaren, that’s very sweet, but maybe you could say that again later? Preferably when you’re buried as deep in my aching cunt as you can reach?”

I didn’t have a response to that.

“Man,” a new voice said behind me, “I’m really starting to envy your life.”

Tiana clung to me tighter, trying to keep my body between her and Sandrel, who had appeared behind us at some point, so I could continue to finger her without him seeing. “Sandrel. You missed the party.”

He snorted. “Tell that to the four spies I’ve got in a lovely little dungeon that legally doesn’t exist. You had a lot of eyes on you tonight that didn’t belong to either of us. When you said you’d respond appropriately, I imagined a little more arson and a little less otherworldly monsters, but you never disappoint, you know that?”

“I assume you’ll let me know if you find out anything important?”

“You know it.” He glanced at some of the bodies. “Things are escalating. You’ve got a play yet?”

“Something like that.” When he raised a brow in question, a small smile crept onto my face. “Tell the others to get ready. As soon as I’ve recovered from all this bullshit I plan on acquiring a brothel, and something tells me things aren’t going to go smoothly.”

He just laughed. “Goody. I was just starting to feel like things were getting boring around here.”